This week, the U.S. Congress is expected to put the final votes to a
proposal to again extend unemployment benefits out to 99 weeks for workers in
states — like Michigan — that have been hardest hit by the current economic
downturn. It will be the sixth such extension
since June 2008, and is projected to add an additional $34 billion to the federal debt.

Republican members of Congress say they will support the proposal only if the Democrat majority agrees to pay for it without
adding to the federal debt. According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, offered four different proposals that
would have paid for the extension using unused stimulus spending — which is
basically old debt — rather than adding more new debt. But each option was
rejected by the Democrat majority.

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Late last month, the Michigan House of Representatives approved
House
Resolution 309, which asked for this federal renewal of the unemployment
benefits, and also for additional Medicaid spending. As originally drafted and
introduced by Rep. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, the resolution did not
express any concern about the likely source of the funding — namely tens of
billions in additional borrowed money.

Two Republican amendments attempted to modify the resolution
to reflect GOP concerns about the federal budget debt.

The first proposed amendment, offered by Rep. Tom McMillin,
R-Rochester Hills, anticipated what appears will be the eventual decision to go ahead and borrow the money from future generations of
Americans. McMillin asked that the title of the resolution be changed to the
"lay more horrendous debt on our
children and grandchildren resolution."

The Democrat
majority gaveled down this prescient suggestion without taking a recorded roll call vote.

The second
amendment proposal, offered by Rep. Pete Lund, R-Shelby Township, asked that
the following instruction be added to the end of the resolution:

"Resolved,
That we memorialize the United States House of Representatives and Senate to
identify the funding source to pay for the extension of unemployment benefits
and the extension of the FMAP funding to states before they take action on such
items ..."

The Democrat majority approved of this
language and added it to the resolution. However, as noted above, the spending
bill working its way through Congress does not pay heed to this request.
Future generations of Americans will be left to decide how to pay for
unemployment benefits that will be approved by the proposal.

Even with the new language, McMillin
and four other Republicans still voted against sending House Resolution 309 to
the U.S. Congress. The resolution was approved on a vote of 102-5. The
Michiganvotes.org roll call vote for the resolution is noted below. Contact
information for members of the Michigan House is available at www.MichCapCon.com/9313.

~~~~~

Lawmakers
in FAVOR OF a resolution asking Congress for more unemployment and Medicaid
spending:

As part of our efforts on government transparency, we obtained data on the compensation of most public employees in the state. This information has been used to fact check claims about salaries, verify data from other open records requests, and hold government spending accountable.

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